


the softest kind of mortal enemy

by summersnights



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Event 2, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mermaids, The Great Lake | The Black Lake (Harry Potter), Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:34:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summersnights/pseuds/summersnights
Summary: during the second event of the triwizard tournment, harry finds that he needs to save draco malfoy.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 179





	the softest kind of mortal enemy

**Author's Note:**

> this is for my twitter friend ilisa (hi ilisa) because she told me she would love me forever if i wrote this for her and i wanted baby boyfriends :)) this is another short little one i wrote in a few hours and finished at three a.m, so its minimally edited and i hope everything turns out good. kudos and comments are much appreciated <3

Harry blinked in a futile attempt to keep the water from his eyes as he scanned over his vast surroundings. A forest of weeds billowed out in front of him from the push and pull of the ocean, and he looked up and down just to find the plants extending far beneath what his eyes could see and ending just a few feet over him. He acknowledged that, yes, he would most likely find whatever he needed to look for through the weeds, and pushed his feet-turned-flippers to thrust him forward. 

The gills on his neck were still highly uncomfortable and unusual, and he ran his fingers over the edges as he paddled through the weeds. A faint singing arose in the distance, eerily similar to a siren song, and he glanced around to see where it was coming from. Again, it prompted his gut instinct to swim through the weeds, so he trudged forward, nudging the weeds to the side as he went in order to clear his path. 

He could see figures dancing around him, almost taunting him, so he became more alert -- he knew mermaids were not ones to mess with. He checked over his shoulders as he continued, his hair rippling with the water and thankfully keeping out of his line of sight. 

A screech and a low grunt sounded off beside him, but he knew this was no time to stop moving. Suddenly, a mermaid flew by, just skimming his body and sending him into a panicked state, flailing his arms and praying for his legs to move faster. He could barely make out its tail whipping around in the distance in front of him, just at the edge of a clearing in the weeds. The smartest decision -- he had learned from Hagrid -- was to trust in magical creatures, so he accepted his fate and followed behind the mermaid. 

He swam into a trench burrowed in the coral reef, taking in the sights of the dreary looking lake water dimming the colors of the plants and the stone structures caked in algae alongside him. He must be close now, he figured, so he swam a tad faster past the mermaids watching him with skeptical eyes and up towards the trail of bubbles that the mermaid he was following created in its wake. There, in the distance, four figures were suspended in the water, ankles bound by a thick strip of seaweed, their arms drifting helplessly and their hair and robes undulating with the current. They looked paler than usual, and a morbid thought crossed Harry’s mind that  _ maybe they were dead?  _ before realizing that as harsh as the Triwizard Tournament was, the schools would never intentionally put their students in harm's way. Maybe. The encounters Harry had with Hogwarts could say something different. 

He immediately paddled towards the student he identified as Hermione, fully convinced that she was the one he needed to save. Cedric swam up beside him, firing off a spell to unbind Cho before looping her arm around his and tapping furiously at his watch to convey the message to Harry that they didn’t have much time left. He was too focused on Cedric’s ascending form and Cho’s body drifting behind Cedric to be aware of the mermaid rushing at him. A loud  _ hiss  _ sounded off chillingly close to his ear, and he winced to the side and darted back. The point of the mermaid's trident pointed threateningly towards his heart, and he locked eyes with the mermaid glaring at him before processing that Hermione wasn’t the one waiting for him. Which didn’t make  _ sense, _ like,  _ at all _ , because the only other ones were Fleur’s sister -- he was well aware of who each of the visiting students were, especially her, because of the boys’ dormitory talk -- and  _ Malfoy?  _ No, no, no,  _ no,  _ he was absolutely one hundred percent certain that Malfoy wasn’t his. Just to make sure, he made eye contact with the mermaid before swimming hesitantly towards Malfoy, not really wanting to endanger the health of his chest with a trident in case his theory was wrong. To his surprise, the mermaid nodded approvingly towards him before swishing their tail and gliding away. He swam up to Malfoy to poke at his cheek to  _ really  _ make sure  _ he looks kind of pretty when he’s not firing off insults, wait what the fuck harry  _ before flipping over and coming face to face with Malfoy’s bound ankles. He fumbled for his wand tied to his stomach and searched for what to unbind the seaweed with. Cedric’s spell did the trick fairly well, and his hands would take too long and might not even work because magic probably bound the seaweed, so he muttered the same spell and watched as a red light emitted from his wand and the seaweed fell loose into the ocean. Malfoy stilled in the water, his arms still suspended out beside him, his lips parted and soft breaths disrupting the water in front of him. He looked as though he was sleeping, and Harry didn’t know if he wanted to bring him back up, because he looked so peaceful without the worry lines etched across his forehead and his eyebrows burrowed in anger that his face usually bore when Harry glanced at him during the school day. 

His little moment was disrupted when a half-shark half-man came rushing at him, quickly unbinding Hermione and racing up to the surface with an immobile Hermione in his arms. The mermaids bristled beside him in anticipation for the event to be over, and Harry realized time must almost be over. But Fleur’s little sister was still wading in the water besides him, and the mermaids realized he must have noticed this, so they immediately whipped around and started dashing towards him in an attempt to stop him. He was quicker from experience around creatures that wanted him dead, though, and shot off a spell to unbind the little girl before propelling up to the water. He had Malfoy in one arm and the girl in the other, and the mermaids chasing after him gave him no relief either. He was being weighed down, and he could feel the effects of the gillyweed starting to wear off. The gills slowly morphed back into skin, and the flippers shrunk into his normal feet. He exerted as much energy as he possibly could, and if he had more time he would admire the streaks of light piercing through the top of the water. He felt a mermaid grab for his foot, the nails scratching his heel, and he swam faster. His lungs were burning and he guessed that five more seconds without air would send him into the depths of the lake, and he couldn’t do that to the people in his arms nor his friends waiting for him, so he propelled to the surface. He could hear a muffled high pitch of a whistle signaling the end of time, and as he broke through the surface, the muffled whistle became a shriek and a raucous applause thundered from the dock. He gasped for water, inhaling and inhaling because there was no time for exhaling. There were hands grappling for him and dragging him into the wooden dock and a hand stroking through his hair and a towel being placed over his shoulders and this is when he noticed the entire audience had gone silent. Draco Malfoy was climbing out of the water after helping Fleur’s sister out, and Harry could hear the gears turning in their heads and slowly connecting that Malfoy was  _ Harry’s _ . Fleur broke the cloudy tense silence when she rushed to her sister and began to fuss over her, and soon whispers broke out over the student body. Harry grabbed Malfoy’s hand to help him fully climb up, and when Malfoy was finally on settled ground, he yanked his wrist from Harry, snatched the towel being hesitantly offered to him, and stormed off without a word. Harry turned, following Malfoy’s receding form, and saw Crabbe and Goyle stumbling behind him and Pansy grabbing for him. He glanced over to find Ron standing there with his mouth agape, moving but producing no sound other than a forced out “ _ Malfoy?”  _

\-------

“Malfoy? Really, Harry?  _ Malfoy? _ ” Harry thought Ron to be a broken record player already, as those were the only words Ron could get out since helping Harry to shore. 

“I don’t bloody  _ know _ why he was mine, Ron, I just swam down there and there he was,” Harry repeated. Ron just sat there with an incredulous look on his face, the golden light produced by the fire in the common room adding dramatic effect. 

“B-but,” Ron sputtered out, and Harry’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and thought about throwing himself into the fire to end Ron’s incessant pestering, only to be saved by Hermione clapping a hand over Ron’s mouth and plopping down onto the couch beside him. 

Harry lit up. “Hermione!” he exclaimed, “please, please, please, in the name of Merlin, tell me you found something.”

“I did,” she then hesitated. “But, Harry, you’re not going to like it.” She glanced at Ron next to her before continuing, “and Ron, you might want to go to your dormitory or find someone to play Gobstones with very far away, because I don’t want you here for this.” Ron whimpered, only to be met with Hermione nudging him off the couch with her foot until he stood up reluctantly and plodded away. He looked back over his shoulder as Hermione waved him away again, and he sighed obnoxiously loud and went to join Seamus and Dean on the other side. 

Hermione joined Harry on the couch, almost sliding the book into his lap before pausing. “Harry, before I tell you this, you  _ need  _ to know you can tell me anything, right? And please, don’t freak out.” Harry decided right then and there he was going to start panicking, but nodded anyway and wanted for her to continue. She finished sliding the book onto his lap, tracing over a few lines in the middle of the page for him to see where she got the information from. “Back in 1808, they had an event similar to this in their Triwizard Tournament. After the event, the teachers revealed to the students that the person that needed to be saved had to have a deep connection with the competitor in order for the person to be chosen to be put in the lake. The spell to keep them safe from harm from the mermaids and what prevented them from drowning wouldn’t even  _ work _ if the person didn’t match the other perfectly.” 

“No,” Harry spoke. “No, thanks. I really appreciate you finding something, Hermione, but I would rather not.” The panic was definitely setting in. 

She sighed, an all-knowing look in her eyes. “Harry, this is ancient magic that selected Malfoy for you and I for Krum. You really can’t just  _ ignore  _ it. I know Malfoy is not very…” she motioned with her hand instead of finding the right words, “but you know, I think this may be a sign that you need to try to actually be civil instead of just throwing insults and seeing who can annoy the other more.” She took Harry’s hand. “Listen to the magic, even if it’s just this once, Harry.”

He thought of being nice to Malfoy. Having a  _ deep connection  _ with his mortal enemy.

“No,” he repeated with a smile. Yeah, maybe he  _ was _ losing his sanity. “No, thanks,” he said with a shake of his head, and stood up and climbed the staircase to the dormitories. 

Hermione sunk back into the couch with a resolved look, closed her eyes, shook her head, and felt Ron sink into the cushions beside her. He looked at her confusedly before she opened her eyes back up just to mutter, “Boys,” and promptly shut them again. She was done dealing with them. 

Maybe just until tomorrow. 

\-------

Harry rubbed his eyes lazily with the back of his hand, dragging himself to Potions even though he couldn’t sleep last night with the nagging thoughts of Draco Malfoy and how annoying _gorgeous and intellectual_ he was and how he couldn’t ever have a deep connection with his mortal enemy _crush_ that he’d had a concerning obsession with for years. He wasn’t _gay,_ Harry Potter himself was not _he probably most likely is_ gay. He was halfway through yawning and distractedly trying to keep those thoughts from setting up permanent camp in his mind when he was yanked into a supply closet. The door locked and a hand clamped over his mouth to muffle the surprised noise he made, and he struggled futilely against his captor. He stratched at the hand covering his mouth, producing an o _w, fuck, Potter_ and the hand promptly dropped. A soft _lumos_ was muttered, and the sight of blond hair and gray eyes came to light before Harry. 

“Malfoy, why in the bloody hell are you dragging me into a supply closet?” Harry sent a pointed glare at Draco, but it was mostly tinged with confusion. 

He was met with silence. 

“Out with it, use your words, please. You’ve never had a problem with that before. And, you know, while we're at it, would you like to explain to me why you've been looking at me weird ever since the lake?”

The silence stretched for even longer. 

“Malfoy, you’re making me late and Snape is going to take more than fifty points from me just because he probably hates me more than usual today and wants to try and break the record he set last year.” He tried to push by Malfoy, but he was met with a stern hand on his wrist dragging him back up to his position against the wall. Harry caught Malfoy’s eyes, desperate for  _ any  _ hint of what he was about to do, but Malfoy had a stoic face, eyes devoid of any emotion. 

“Please, Malfoy, if you’re going to hex me, just get it over with,” Harry pleaded. Only then did Malfoy move, planting a soft kiss on Harry’s lips and saying something that Harry couldn’t comprehend because he was too shocked before then fumbling to unlock the door. Harry snapped out of his trance long enough to say  _ to hell with it _ and flipped Malfoy back around against the opposite wall and rose up to his height --  _ okay, Malfoy’s only like half an inch taller, shut up  _ \-- to firmly kiss him. He was met with a hesitant kiss back, before more pressure was put into it and now he was fully snogging Malfoy, a hand on his lean waist and Malfoy’s hand tugging his hair. He pulled back just enough to look into grey eyes before asking, “What did you say before?”

Malfoy made a noise, lacking any semblance at the moment. 

“Malfoy, what did you say before?” Harry repeated. He nudged their noses together to prompt him to continue. 

“I said,” Malfoy’s words came out in a soft breath on Harry’s lips, “thank you. I never got the chance to say thank you, and I’m sorry.” He let out a deep breath. “For not saying thank you.” He straightened up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really need to get to class.” He turned around and brushed off his robes, reaching for the door handle once more. Harry tugged on his robes to get Malfoy’s attention again.

“Wait, Malfoy, can I see you again soon?” Harry whispered, afraid of the answer he would receive. Yeah, maybe he had  _ just _ come to terms with the fact he had been harboring a huge crush for years and he was most definitely not going to let his opportunity slip through his fingers.

“Well, Potter, as it turns out, we are going to the same class -- by the way, because I’m  _ nice _ , you should probably go before me so no one suspects anything and so Snape will take off less poin-”

“No, you blubbering idiot, you know what I meant,” Harry huffed out, releasing Malfoy’s robes from his fingers before crossing his arms over his chest. 

Malfoy grinned, a rare thing for Harry to see, and spoke close to Harry, his breath just ghosting his ear. “Meet me in the Room of Requirement at midnight, Potter.” He then kissed his cheek and strode out the door -- giving Harry a fairly nice view of his ass -- because now it was his turn to leave Harry a sputtering, blushing mess in the closet. 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope u enjoyed and thanks for reading :)


End file.
